Come On, Give Into Me

     I'm tempted to apologize for my bad attitude yesterday. But I won't because I was keeping my promise of being honest no matter how I felt. Although, sometimes I wonder if I'm hiding behind my "honesty pledge" because (at least for me) it's so easy (and almost rewarding in a bad way) to wallow in self-pity. Now that I feel better, while I am still frustrated and feel a little lost when it comes to finding a real job I'm determined to find something that fits me and that I love. Now if I can just find the right words on which to focus the job hunt.  Good thing that my parents are very lovely and aren't pressuring me to get a job and move out.  (Actually, I don't know how they are going to like once I'm gone... it will be an adjustment to have a real empty nest.  They'd probably like it, but when I leave I'm also taking Oscar with me.  Very sad day for all of us.)  But in the meantime, I'll just use some of the skills God gave me to bake and create.
     Which brings me to today's real topic, Zucchini bread.  I've been wanting to make this zucchini bread that I found through Foodgawker (or Pinterest, I can't keep up anymore).  Either way, it's supposed to be a weight watcher recipe (and only have 150 per slice) and it has chocolate chips in it.  So like I said, I've been dying to try this recipe.  It's not half bad.  I baked them in a different pan than was suggested and I ended up having trouble figuring out when it was done (I got it out too early and then maybe a little too late).  The crust isn't my favorite, but all in all it was a very good and easy recipe.  But (because I didn't read the fine print) I ended up shredding way too many zucchini (like easily over twice as much as I needed) so I'm trying to find recipes that include shredded zucchini.

I'm either going to make zucchini tots or zucchini fritters for us humans.

Photo Credit: tots and fritters

And for the puppies these zucchini treats (but maybe without the walnuts).

Photo Credit

But back to my zucchini bread.  (Looks totally yummy, right?)

While you can find a complete detailed recipe right here along with the weight watcher's details, I thought I'd post my own version that goes along with pictures.   Because pictures help tell a story, right?  (And if you just want a solid recipe go down to the bottom of the post cause I'll sum it all up for you.)

Preheat oven to 325°.

Mix your dry ingredients:  1 cup all-purpose flour, 1 cup whole wheat flour, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1-1/8 tsp baking soda, and 1/2 tsp salt.  After those are combined well, pour in 1/2 chocolate chips.

My chocolate chips are mostly in the bottom.

Mix the rest of the ingredients:  1 (large, beaten) egg, 1 tsp vanilla, 2 tbsp melted butter, 1 cup apple sauce, 1-1/2 cups shredded zucchini (about 2 large and 3 small)

Before I combined the zucchini with the rest of the "wet" ingredients.

My leftover zucchini (hopefully it will keep in the fridge until tomorrow).

Important Sidenote:  It's your decision on whether to keep the skin or peel it before shredding the zucchini.  From what I've heard it doesn't make that much of a difference, except maybe in how it looks.

Combine your mixed dry ingredients and "wet" ingredients (not sure if that is a real term).  

Grease and flour your pan (I used stoneware, but I have no idea what kind.  It is made for baking loaves though.) the original recipe talks about a 9x5 inch loaf pan (which would probably work just fine).

Mom thought these were Pampered Chef, but I couldn't find anything about them on their website. 

When Mom used to cook Zucchini bread when I was a child she always made them in round loaves (it's how I could tell if it was a gift from someone or something she made herself... I usually prefer the ones she made herself because I think she left out the nuts and I'm very biased)

I filled up my two pans not even half way.  (I just split the dough between the two.)

Put into the preheated (at 325°) oven and let it bake for 45-55 minutes.  (At least that's what the recipe says, but I ended up cooking my bread for 45 minutes--then left it out to cool because I thought it was done--and then put it back into a cold oven (that I turned back on to 325°) for roughly 30-45 more minutes.)  The toothpick trick should help you determine if it is fully done (sticking a toothpick in the top and if it comes back clean then it's done) if the toothpick trick doesn't work (it didn't help me) cutting into it for your first slice will probably give it away.

Looks done and yummy, right? WRONG! (this was after I pulled them out the first time to cool.) 

So while you're waiting for the zucchini bread to finish baking go do something fun, like play with your puppy! Or stare at my adorable puppy!

You do have almost an hour to kill. But once it is done, cool for about 10 minutes.  Take it out of the pan and slice.

Here are pictures at Oscar to look at while waiting for your bread to bake. AND one of good old Jack.

And here is the Low-Fat Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread recipe written out (if you want to see the weight watcher's facts just click on the link above).

Ingredients:

-1 cup all-purpose flour

-1 cup whole wheat flour (or white whole wheat flour)

-1/2 cup brown sugar (not packed)

-1-1/8 tsp baking soda

-1/2 tsp salt

-1/2 cup chocolate chips

-1 tsp vanilla

-1 large egg (beaten)

-2 tbsp melted butter

-1 cup applesauce

-1-1/2 cups shredded zucchini (not packed) (about 2 medium, 3 small zucchinis)

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 325°.

2.  Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt.  Mix well.  Pour in chocolate chips and gently stir. (You can do this step in a medium sized bowl.)

3.  In a large bowl, mix eggs, vanilla, melted butter, apple sauce, and shredded zucchini. 

4.  Mix flour mixture with the rest of your ingredients and stir until just blended.  

5.  Grease and flour appropriate loaf pan (either a 9x5 inch pan or circular stoneware).

6.  Pour batter into pan of your choice.

7.  Bake at 325° for 45-55 minutes (possibly longer) or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

8.  Cool for at least 10 minutes.

9.  Remove loaf from pan and let cool before slicing.

10.  Enjoy eating your healthy BUT delicious zucchini bread!

I hope someone does find the recipe useful.  I know I said I was going to try and make 2 loaves of bread each month, but last month I made all of 0.  And so far, I haven't even listed any recipes!   Shame on me.  So this month I want to get 4 different types of breads made.  I've already found my next project (Honey Butter Beer Bread).  Doesn't that just sound amazing?   My family is going to be super fat and I'm going to be happy about it because it will mean that I am cooking some wonderful things.  

     Anyway, I hope you have a great tomorrow (day in general).  I wanted to leave you with one of my favorite songs from last summer that is from a wonderful movie that caught me by surprise, Country Strong. I love Garrett Hedlund's voice, and it's not a downside that he is way good looking too!

Title: "Give In To Me" by Garett Hedlund and Leighton Meester

May 3, 2012 Edit:  The pans I baked my zucchini bread in were Pampered Chef.  It's the Pampered Chef Stoneware Crock.  Apparently they have been they have been discontinued.  But you can find some on ebay if you really want one.

I'm Never Gonna Say "Surrender"

     Today was not such a good day.  I slept most of the day.  But it means that I've had three days where I've pushed through the pain before I couldn't anymore.  Which is good and definitely progress.  Since the botox, all of the pain that I feel with my head is so much more intense.  I'm not sure what to make of that. But I do have longer stretches of time where I feel better.  And they seem like they are just getting longer. Which is definitely a wonderful thing.  
     I helped Mom make cinnamon swirl bread today.  We have yet to figure out the exact way to make it, apparent in the huge cave we found when we cut the bread open.  I remember sometime after 9/11 Mom made a batch of bread that somehow managed to have a bubble in it like the one below.  I'm pretty sure all three loaves did and we joked that Osama Bin Laden was hiding in the caves of her bread.  It's just one of  those funny moments that I don't think I'll ever forget.  

Doesn't look pretty but boy is it delicious!

Photo Credit: My mom 

She sent this to me when she didn't think I was going to come down for dinner.

Title comes from the song "Soldier" by Gavin DeGraw.

Rethinking but Not Quitting

The more I think about my third resolution the more I worry that I am taking on too much.  After all, since the 40 Loaf Challenge hasn't exploded all over the interweb... I think I'll make the challenge into something that will be more manageable.  This way I won't get upset at the end of the year because I haven't made 40 different loaves.
Also, after this year is over I'm still going to want to continue to bake loaves, etc.  I just have to come up with a catchy tag so you can eventually find all of them once I've gotten a few months under my belt.

Edited Resolution #3:
To make 2 loaves of "bread" every month for as long as possible.

40 Loaf Challenge

I grew up eating my mother's homemade bread.  I love cutting open a warm loaf of bread straight from the oven (that's been cooled a little of course).  I started baking desserts when... well I can't exactly remember when I started.  But when I returned home from college, I took over baking the homemade sourdough bread.  (My mom's starter had died, so we started completely from scratch.)

The process of making bread takes about 3 days. Simply broken down it ends up going something like this:
Day 1: Feed the starter.
Day 2: Split the starter into two parts-- one you put in the fridge for later and one you use for your bread. Add ingredients and then knead loads of flour into the dough. 
Day 3: Split that risen dough into three parts.  Knead each part further into loaves and let those rise for a few hours before actually cooking.
(P.S. I know that's not a real recipe don't worry, if you really want a recipe I'll post one later.)

To challenge myself and keep me baking/cooking items that weren't just sweets (my parents had started to complain), I decided I was going to do something like the 40 Loaf challenge found on my favorite blog (of course). I thought I had seen it in other places, but maybe not.  Anyway, I'm debating on how I am going to go about this challenge.  I want to make it my own, so I'm not just copying everything Elise does.  (Although her blog is mighty inspiring.) If I wanted to make 40 loaves in 2013 then I would have to bake roughly 5 different loaves every month, which might be challenging but wouldn't be completely difficult (that is if I did my math correctly).  But I might want to make it something a little more manageable.  However, as of right now, I'm thinking 40 loaves is a nice number to shoot for.

Resolution #3:
Bake 40 loaves in 2013.